etrailer | Review of OptiMate RV Solar Panels - 60 Watt Roof Mounted Solar Kit - MA36JR

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Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-Demo-OptiMate-RV-Solar-Panels-60-Watt-Roof-Mounted-Solar-Kit-MA36JR.aspx
Hi there. I'm Michael with Etrailer.com. Today we're going to take a quick look at this OptiMate Solar Duo Solar Charging System. This is going to provide the 60 watt polycrystalline solar panel that will convert the sun's rays into electricity to charge up your batteries while you're off the grid. This is going to work with your two to 240 amp hour 12 volt Flooded, AGM, Gel, and Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. This is designed for a permanent installation, so you can see it is right about 27 inches wide, little over two feet by 26 inches tall.

Again, just a little over two feet. So it's not going to take up a whole lot of room. It's only about an inch and a quarter of an inch thick. So very easy to get mounted in place. They don't include any hardware for you to get it mounted, but just a couple of screws and that sort of thing.

To some of these holes on these mounting brackets will allow you to get this permanently mounted in place where it's going to absorb that sunshine, to convert into electricity, to charge up your batteries. Now, if you're not familiar with solar panels, there's a couple of things to keep in mind. One, this probably isn't going to charge your battery super quick. Most solar is like a trickle charge, so it takes a while for it to charge up your battery, depending on the size of battery, and how long you want to be off the grid, that sort of thing will determine how big of a solar array you're going to need. So this is probably going to be more on the small end.

We do have larger systems available here at Etrailer.com. So if you're wanting to do a long weekend off the grid using only solar power, I would recommend a little bit a heftier system, but this is going to do a decent job of trickle charging your battery. It does have that polycrystalline construction, which isn't the most premium construction. The best on the market is a monocrystalline. So in my mind, it's a comparable to plywood or poly board versus a solid hardwood board.

So that kind of gives you the idea of how the construction is a little bit different. Really, all you need to know is that the polycrystalline is going to be a little bit less effective or efficient. The monocrystalline is the most, but this is still going to do a great job for you. Just depends on the quality that you're wanting to invest in. The monocrystalline does tend to be a little bit more expensive. So if you are just looking to get that energy to your batteries, you don't really care about the efficiency. This is going to do a great job for you. I think you'll be very happy with it in the long run. So one of the most important components of this system is gonna be our controller. So on the back of our panel, we do have this cable that's got this SAE connector. This cable is right about 80 inches long. So that'll kind of give you an idea of where this needs to be mounted so that it can reach to your battery. But you're going to plug this into your controller. Looks like this. Zoom in a little bit for you, so you can see that better. So our controller is actually kind of the brains of the operation. This is going to ensure that our battery is being charged appropriately. So it's got an automatic multi-stage smart charging system to help extend your battery's life. You can see the LEDs there help to provide the charge process and allows you to see if your battery is really lowly in charge, versus as it goes up. Also helps you to monitor the charge level, so as you use power, it's going to go down. So really important to see that, but then also this is going to ensure that it knows what your battery is doing so that it's going to pump the right amount to your battery, rather than having unregulated power coming from your solar panel. This is kind of help to make sure that it's fitting to your battery in an appropriate way that's not going to overcharge it or be damaging to your battery. This does also have a dual method smart charging system that helps to efficiently charge the battery in any weather. So if you have full sun out, it's going to provide about five amps of continuous charge. If you have low light, it's going to provide about three to five amps of pulse charge. So that's going to do a good job of helping the battery. It is going to help save dead batteries from as low as four volts. So if your battery is extremely discharged, this will help to bring it back again with that kind of trickle charge mentality. So, as I said, our solar cable is right at 80 in